Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/464

 456

NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. xn. DEC. n, 1915

s. a.

7

5

Monday June the 8th 1741.

The Beaux Stratagem & P. Lovers

Shared at 5 Shares Is

In hand

Wednesday Begun at Usk June 10th 1741. The Spanish Fryar and Honest York'm i Shard at 5 Shares 5s. In hand Friday Begun at Carleon June the 12th 1741. The Spanish Fryar

Shared at 5 Shares 1-6

In hand 000

Mr. Hurrel and his Wife left the Company June the 14th 1741.

Monday Began at New Lond. June 22d. The Beaux Stratagem and Credulous

Cuckold 28

Curtains

Shared at 3 Shares 14-6.

Thursday Began at Malmsbury July the 2d 1741. The Spanish Fryar and Parting Lovers 16 Shared at 3 Shares 4s.

Monday July the 6th 1741. The Spanish Fryar and Cobbler of

Preston .. .. ..11

Shared at 3 Shares 5s. Qd.

Wednesday Began at Crickolade July the 8th 1741. The Spanish Fryar and Paring Lovers 6 6 Shared at 3 Shares Is. Qd. In hand. .

Thursday July the 9th 1741. The Beaux Stratagem & Cred'ls Cuck'd 090 Shared at 3 Shares 2s. In Hand. . Fryday July the 10th 1741.

'George Bamwell, King & Miller.. ..086 Shard at 3 Shares 2s. In Hand. . Monday Began at Lechdale July the 13 1741. The Spanish Fryar and Parting L. .. 1 Shared at 3 Shares 6s. In Hand. . Tuesday July the 14th 1741.

The Beaux Stratagem & Cr'd Cuckol. . 7 Shared at 3 Shares 2s. In Hand. .

Wednesday July the 15th 1741. The Spanish Fryar & C. P. .. . . 11

Shared at 3 Shares 3s. In Hand. .

Tuesday Began at Marchen July 31 1741. The Spanish Fryar and Parting Lovers 060 Shared at 3 Shares Is. Qd. In Hand 00 1J

Conceive, if possible, a stage lighted by candles, draped with curtains cpsting one shilling ; a company of three actors (S. W. Ryley, ' The Itinerant,' ix. 84-5, tells of a performance of ' Pizarro ' by four men and three women, where one handy and agile actor played five roles in the same evening) ; a manager who rarely had " in hand " more than a few pence, who collected his audience, " taking the town " at the price of one shilling, who invariably squandered two- pence for ale (probably for the helpers), who spent threepence for paper and usually wrote

out the playbills by hand (S. W. Ryley, ' The Itinerant,' ix. 80). Small wonder' that such a producer often gave a wretched maimed performance as one on record of ' The Devil to Pay ' without a Sir John Loverule and that the audience was some- times " only the shadow of a shade " (Tate Wilkinson, 'Wandering Patentee,' ii. 170, 222). The fairly successful Tate Wilkinson even said (idem, iii. 45-6) :

" Long experience had and has convinced me of the many disagreements, and the perpetual dangers of rocks, shoals, storms, and tempests, hi which every theatrical bark is continually endangered. To descend to the common orders of human life, surely none, no none can equal the visionary happiness or be liable to so many ills as the stage."

Apart from managerial difficulties a?, for instance, when Wilkinson arrived in Portsmouth in 1760, and found " the play- house as a company of comedians had left it, a mere wreck " (idem, iii. 37) we have still to read behind the records and realize the position of the member in ordinary of such a company. Throughout, the story is the same ill-bred persons of some education mingled with well-educated persons of roving disposition and often small morals, to make up the personnel. The players were fre- quently " really in want from various causes " ; others were overworked and well-intentioned, as Miss Wilkinson, who, " out of the little pittance she hardly obtained, supported her father and mother, though she was not in an affluent state as to her finances " ; others were merely " theatri- cal mediocrity," and in such cases when the thumbs turned down " the actor was cer- tainly to blame, not the audience," for it was clearly " inclination substituted for genius." The glorious profession of strutting a brief hour or so was many times saluted with a variety of candlesticks, branches, and flaming candles, though sometimes " hailed with shouts of triumph from box, pit, and galleries." " At its best the stage has its bitters mingled with its sweets " (Tate Wilkinson, ' Memoirs,' i. 228 ; the other quotations are from the same author). When Mr. So-and-So "left the Company" at Carmarthen, it might have been because he was taken sick and was so obliged to remain there while the others went on in an effort to earn their bread, leaving their former companion perhaps to die without a friend to close his eyes or a minister near willing to give him decent Christian burial. If he had been fortunate, it might have been merely to walk half across England as often occurred to secure a place in another